Smoking zones determined for 2011

UT will implement designated smoking areas effective in August 2011 following a resolution passed by the UT Board of Trustees Academic and Student Affairs Committee at their June 7 meeting.

"I think it's a very positive step in the right direction for healthy students," said Director of Residence Life Jo Campbell, who is also a member of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Prevention Committee.

Vice President for Student Affairs Kaye Patten-Wallace said the designated areas have not been entirely decided upon yet, but will mostly include an area to accommodate each residence hall and areas where students spend the majority of their time, such as the Carlson Library.

There will also be designated areas for smoking for a few hours before and after large events on campus such as sports games and concerts, according to Campbell.

When the Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Prevention Committee conducted their smoking survey last year, the results showed 40 percent of students who participated in the survey voted for a tobacco free campus, while 42 percent of students voted to keep the current policy.

Only 17 percent of students voted to have designated smoking areas.

UT's current smoking policy requires students, faculty, and staff to be at least 30 feet away from a buildings entrance to smoke.

The more restrictive smoking policy will be implemented on not only UT's Main Campus but also on the Scott Park Campus, the Center for the Visual Arts, and the Lake Erie Center, according to the drafted policy.

The draft of the policy specifies that UT will become not only become smoke-free in August of 2011 but tobacco-free, prohibiting the use of tobacco products including the e-cigarette, chewing tobacco, pipes and cigarettes outside of the designated areas.

"No Smoking" and "Tobacco Free" signs will be posted in all appropriate areas and a map indicating the areas designating for smoking and tobacco usage will also be available at all information desks.

Patten-Wallace said the initial goal was to make UT entirely smoke-free.

"We want to support good health but at the same time we realize that people are going to smoke, but we want them to be able to do it in a safe environment," she said. "Initially we took it forward to move to a non-smoking university, but there questions and concerns raised [by the BOT] regarding students who live here and students having to cross the street [to smoke] and things like that. We also need to accommodate visitors to our campus as well."

There was some disappointment, Campbell said, that this goal was not reached.

"We're kind of the prevention folks, so there was a little bit of disappointment there, but the overall reaction was ‘wow, great. We're moving forward,'" Campbell said. "Down the road, I'd say that right now what we're looking at is developing what are the designated areas, what exactly a designated area means and an implementation team. But we've got a whole year before this would become effective."

The Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Prevention Committee ultimately hopes to move toward a total smoking ban on the Main Campus, but Patten-Wallace said they have to "phase" it.

"After we move to designated areas, the general consensus would be to move to a complete smoking ban, but that probably won't be until the next year or the year after," she said. "When you make these kinds of changes you have to phase them in."

Campbell said the Committee is now in the process of figuring out exactly how to designate the smoking areas.

"We are working with someone from the facilities and construction team, who is going to help us with what is a designated area, and what does that look like: a concrete slab, or a building," she said.

"I think it's a step towards being more healthy for all of us," Campbell said. "Secondhand smoke, if you're not a smoker, is dangerous for all of us. The American College Health Association has healthy campus goals, so that's part of what they're recommendations are. They have said to go to a tobacco free campus. We're trying to keep pace in what the best practice is for our students and our campus."

Students, faculty and staff who are caught smoking in places outside the designated smoking areas will not be ticketed, unless they violate the policy repeatedly, when it is implemented, according to Patten-Wallace.

"The goal is not to be punitive to people who are caught smoking; it's to be educational," she said. "It's not that we're going to chase people down and give them tickets. Like any other policy, if there's a violation, we have the student code of conduct that we can use if it's a student. We have behavioral expectations for faculty and staff and we would use those mechanisms."